Phoenix to unleash Hooper
Wellington Phoenix will be boosted by the return of Gary Hooper for Sunday’s match against the in-form Adelaide United, increasing their chances of a rare win at Coopers Stadium.
Hooper sat on the bench during last weekend’s win over Brisbane Roar, their first of the A-League season, as coach Ufuk Talay elected not to risk his star signing, who has been hampered by injury.
However, fresh off a full week of training, Hooper looks set to add to the 60 minutes action he has seen since joining the Phoenix two games into the 2019-20 campaign.
Talay revealed the plan was to unleash the former Celtic striker against Adelaide and build him up from there.
‘‘But we’ll see, we’ll have to manage it and what is happening on the field at that time,’’ Talay said.
Hooper showed glimpses of his quality by scoring in his first start against Melbourne City earlier this month but his progress was set back by a minor quad strain, which kept him out of the two most recent matches and restricted his involvement in training.
Given the Phoenix’s struggles in Adelaide over the years, winning just three of their 20 encounters at Coopers Stadium, the last of which occurred in December 2014, captain Steven Taylor said the return of Hooper is a timely boost.
‘‘What he will bring to the team is something different, especially the A-League as well,’’ Taylor said.
‘‘Defences will have to be very mindful, they’ll probably need two players to deal with him because he’s got his hold up play, running the channels, his work rate, he just doesn’t stop running — he’s an absolute machine so I can’t wait to see him get a run of games together and I’m sure the goals will come.’’ Although there is an extra flight involved, Taylor said he was at a loss to explain the Phoenix’s poor record away to Adelaide, who come into Sunday’s game on the back of four consecutive wins.
‘‘I haven’t got a clue about that. We tried different things last year but they’re very good. Performance-wise this season they’ve been very good and they’re causing a lot of problems.’’
Central to Adelaide’s success this season has been midfielder Riley McGree. One of the breakout stars of the 2019-20 campaign, McGree, 21, has already found the back of the net six times.
‘‘They’ve got threats all over the park but he’s a very good football player.’’
Although he has returned to contact training after dislocating a shoulder, Louis Fenton will not travel to Adelaide, Talay erring on the side of caution given the player’s injury history.
In his absence, Tim Payne will once again start at right-back in what is expected to be an unchanged 11, with Hooper’s involvement likely to come from the bench.
All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith has opened on the ‘‘ruthless’’ review that followed New Zealand’s semifinal loss to England at the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
The All Blacks were chasing an unprecedented third successive world title after World Cup wins in 2011 and 2015 but England demolished them 19-7 in Yokohama on October 27.
It was the end of Steve Hansen’s hugely successful time with the All Blacks and the bronze final a week later against Wales was the final farewell for the departing coach and veterans like Kieran Read, Ben Smith, Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty.
Smith, a World Cup winner in 2015, revealed how Hansen summoned all the players and staff to a meeting after the semifinal defeat. The All Blacks went on to beat Wales 40-17 to finish the tournament third.
‘‘The review process was ruthless. It was tough,’’ the Highlanders halfback told the Rugby Bricks podcast.
‘‘We were watching one of the worst games we’ve ever played, and you’re part of some ugly stuff. Was the effort there? It was bigpicture, there was no actual name-calling, just things like ‘We needed to be better there, here’s a big moment that we mucked up, here’s a chance that we could have made.
‘‘Steve did it with the whole room – everyone got their one minute or two minutes to say how they felt. There was a range of emotions – there were 51 of us there to start the review.’’
The 31-year-old Smith is a senior figure in the All Blacks and is the country’s most capped halfback (92) after his test debut in 2012.
Smith said the mood was ‘‘pretty sombre’’ as the All Blacks assessed their first loss in a World Cup since the infamous quarterfinal defeat to France in Cardiff in 2007.
‘‘We had our leadership meeting with the coaches and it was tough – Steve Hansen asked right away ‘how do you feel right now?’ We all told each other how we felt – and as you can imagine it was pretty sombre.
‘‘One thing I love and hate about rugby players is we won’t take the glory either, but we love falling on the sword, and that’s what I hated the most about what I was hearing – we all wanted to jump on the sword, you know – ‘It was because of me’,’’ Smith said.
‘‘Coach was like ‘cut that – it wasn’t that, we all did our part, and we all lost’. That was what I hated hearing, some of the best players in the world saying ‘it was my fault’ or ‘If I had done this…’ But the good thing was once we all said how we felt, we all felt a bit better.’’
England’s win over the All Blacks, their first since 2012, was widely considered one of the World Cup’s best performances in history but Eddie Jones’ side couldn’t back it up in the final the Springboks won 32-12.
It was South Africa’s third global rugby title, matching New Zealand’s record, and the All